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Talk:Silent Characters
Delete Although this is being discussed, for renaming per capitalization rules, looking at it, I don't think we even need it. A user created it as a rough and inaccurate category back in 2006, so it was turned into a list. Sam (Sam and Friends) doesn't really belong here since we don't know if he spoke or not. It's assumed somehow just because we've seen so little of him, but his sole surviving appearance has him lip-synching to Louis Prima, so that's not silent. A ton of characters could be added, every background character who we know never spoke (or just partially seen, like Mr. Callahan, who thus function more like the unseen characters), and so on. Does anyone feel like reworking this to actually make it useful beyond one user's arbitrary inclusions over three years ago? Otherwise, I'd say just dump it. The sole link to it is the capitalization sandbox. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 19:11, April 27, 2010 (UTC) :I know that the Henson.com featured creature profile on Sam said that he never spoke but lip-synched to records, and I think there's a source somewhere of Jane Henson confirming this fact as well. I find it hard to believe that the star would be silent (of course it's also hard to believe that he wasn't in every episode, to the point that he was in only one known surviving episode), but if he was supposed to be silent then I'd be surprised if Jane Henson was wrong on that fact. --Minor muppetz 17:11, April 29, 2010 (UTC) ::I think the page could work if we stuck to characters who were notably silent. Sam would be a great example according to Michael's sources. Sully is an even better one: a silent character prominently seen, but not just a background character that we wouldn't expect to speak. —Scott (talk) 18:21, May 6, 2010 (UTC) :::Scott, do you actually feel like doing it? I'm still not sure about the whole "Sam" thing, but as it stands, this page is still pretty weak and still just the result of a category deletion and not much more. If someone volunteers to rehabilitate it, I'd be happy to add an "attention" tag, maybe make it a group project. Otherwise, the actual page has a total of four edits by three people, the last in April 2007. I usually don't like to rush longterm projects unduly, but this feels like one where either folks are interested in doing something with the idea, or they aren't. In which case deletion until someone with the time, interest, and energy to recreate it doesn't seem unreasonable. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 01:32, May 21, 2010 (UTC) ::::I haven't been able to get my head into it, so I'm okay with moving this to sandbox for now. —Scott (talk) 02:16, May 25, 2010 (UTC) :::::This list hasn't been fixed in three years, so I'm going to go ahead and delete it (the items here don't help much anyway, since they range from Muppets to a silent one-shot human extra on Dinosaurs to Mano, a pantomime hand). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 20:31, November 2, 2010 (UTC) 35th Anniversary Trivia Game Interesting to note, the 35th Anniversary Trivia Game on Sesamestreet.org states that Sully, Wolfgang Seal and Bruno the trashman never speak. -- Brad D. (talk) 19:24, January 9, 2010 (UTC) Benny Benny is listed here, which I'm assuming is supposed to be Benny (Muppet Show) due to his lack of speach in The Cat Came Back. However, he's also listed on Jerry Nelson as having been performed by Nelson, I'm assuming for a different appearance. If that's the case, Benny shouldn't be listed here as a silent character. —Scott (talk) 17:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC) :It isn't the case. He is silent, it was his only appearance, and it is Nelson. Of Muppets and Men (the book) discusses the sketch, with pictures and a rundown of who performed who. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:43, 2 April 2007 (UTC) ::Ah, sounds good. —Scott (talk) 22:17, 2 April 2007 (UTC) Page move Can we get a better definition/criteria for this category? Right now, it's a little confusing. The inclusion of Sam, for example, seems based on one sentence which itself doesn't seem to have a real basis (since as far as we know, only one skit starring Sam, lip-synching to "That Old Black Magic," survives anyway). Mr. Noodle seems a better fit than Lips or even Yorick (who grunted quite a bit). This might work better if clearly limited to pantomime characters, defined by their silence or otherwise using it as a form of communication, not just characters who didn't speak a lot, or minor bit players/background characters (I'd question Miss Honeywell on that score, for example, since she appears for all of six seconds or so). -- Andrew Leal (talk) 19:04, 15 December 2006 (UTC) :Yeah it's confusing the way it is worded now -- "usually remain silent for some period of time". I mean Zoot has been seen silent more than he's been verbal. And Rowlf has a bunch of silent appearances too. Lips does talk much, but he has talked (he just hasn't been a main character much). I think this should be for characters without a voice - a mime-like character (not characters that don't talk much, as that is subjective and blurry – especially for characters that are minor to begin with). I do question very small bit or background parts that in nature are simply silent, but technically they are silent so I understand them being included as we (the audience) never hear their voice but do see them. What about a character like Rufus, Sprocket or Barkley that communicate through non-verbal means of pantomime and gestures but still make sounds? I think the whole category needs some re-consideration and reworking to be clear and interesting. Like unseen characters it should be clear cut what is or isn't "silent", not just someone's subjective feeling that a character does't talk much. -- Brad D. (talk) 19:15, 15 December 2006 (UTC) ::Right. Unseen characters, like illustrated characters or voice characters (the latter could probably be merged with unsee, actually) or animated characters are used as terms mainly to define the *form* the character takes in a given medium, to distinguish them from Muppet Characters, not the frequency with which they behave or speak or whatever. If this has to stay, it would work better as a list, where distinctions could be better explored, and it could avoid becoming a catalogue for every background monster or thing who hasn't spoken. I understand the desire to make the distinction, sort of, but in my paranoid fashion, I can also envision a "Characters Who Talk Really Loud" easily arising as a counterpart. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 19:19, 15 December 2006 (UTC) :::Yeah, I agree. I think list would serve this better. -- Brad D. (talk) 19:55, 15 December 2006 (UTC)